Engineering

October 15, 2009

At a recent meeting in Lexington, Managing Director for Nanoracks, Jeffrey Manber, described the idea behind the use of Nanoracks to host Cubesat-sized modules with individual science and research experiments - called Cubelabs - on the International Space Station. This brand new project will bring microgravity research within reach of many more organizations.

October 01, 2009

Swooping by at an altitude of just 141.7 miles, images from MESSENGER'S third flyby of Mercury this week are now being posted. The surface in the lower right corner of this
image is near Mercury's terminator, the line between the day and night side of the planet.

The craft will settle into orbit around Mercury beginning on March 18, 2011.

Flux pinning describes the interaction between a high temperature superconductor (HTSC) and a magnetic field. The magnetic field induces current vortices in the HTSC, which are sensitive to and resist the change in magnetic flux through the HTSC surface. This effect creates mechanical stiffness and damping that influence the motion of the magnetic field’s source in multiple degrees of freedom. In a multibody space system, HTSC/magnet pairs placed on individual vehicles tie the dynamics of each body to that of its neighbors, creating a non-contacting virtual structure.

September 04, 2009

Featuring deployable solar panels, here's some video of a cubesat in development by students at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Perhaps someone who knows about the project could explain a bit more about the goals for the cube.

August 25, 2009

It's not a bad gig being known as the father of the Internet, but Vint Cerf is not ready to settle for an ubiquitous terrestrial network, raising, as well, the issue of an interplanetary internet in this video. Part two may be viewed here.

The video, by the way, is from Sputnik Observatory, an intriguing new site documenting contemporary thought on a wide variety of scientific issues.

August 13, 2009

As tweeted yesterday, Kentucky Space has been at the CubeSat Developer's Summer Workshop in Logan, Utah, where Anthony Karam (left) and Samir Rawashdeh (right) presented on SOCEM, the sub orbital cubesat experimental mission - see this fit check of the hardware, which will soon fly from Wallops, and an
orbital environment simulator, respectively. The simulator was
developed by Samir at the University of Kentucky.

August 07, 2009

At the CubeSat Developer's Workshop this weekend, Kentucky Space students Anthony Karam and Samir Rawashdeh will be present on SOCEM (sub orbital cubesat experimental mission), which will soon fly from Wallops, and an
orbital environment simulator, respectively. The simulator was
developed by Samir at the University of Kentucky.

The image on the right was taken during a recent SOCEM fit check.

Daniel Erb will also presenting an update about the Kentucky Space program as a whole.

August 06, 2009

Paul Gilster's post today on new developments in Ion propulsion pairs nicely with an update from the Project System Engineer forDawn on that ion-powered spacecraft's journey to Ceres and Vesta. Compared to the Space Shuttle's orbital speed of 18,000 mph, modern ion propulsion can reach 200,000 mph.